My Big News . . .

by Donna Hatch

My big news is that my first novel, a Regency called The Stranger She Married, has officially gone into contract with The Wild Rose Press. All of their books are published first in electronic form, and then about six months later, they come out in paperback. I already love my editor. She’s been incredibly supportive and encouraging, but she assures me she’ll be ruthless with her edits. That’s great with me. I know I have a lot to learn and I consider this my apprenticeship, or on-the-job training. I figure, hey, she liked my book enough to buy it, regardless of what else she says during her edits, it’s only to improve it and show it to it’s best possible advantage. She wants me to turn this and my next few books into a series, so we are busy brainstorming on series titles and book titles. It’s all very exciting. I look forward to the journey.

I wrote the back cover blurb with the valuable input of my wonderful critique partners. I can’t believe how difficult that was. It took me two days to write three paragraphs. If the rest of the book had been that slow, it would take years to write it! Trying to get the gist of a 300 page book condensed into a few sentences, without giving away any surprises, and tease the reader into wanting to read it enough to spend their hard-earned money on it, about drove me out of my mind!

Oh, and there’s another book out there with almost the same title; The Stranger I Married was released a couple of months ago, also a regency romance, so now I might have to change my title. Booo. That’s in the hands of the higher powers now.

Anyway, here’s my blurb:

When her parents and only brother die within weeks of each other, Alicia and her younger sister are left in the hands of an uncle who has brought them all to financial and social ruin. Desperate to save her family from debtor's prison, Alicia vows to marry the first wealthy man to propose. She meets the dashing Lord Amesbury, and her heart whispers that this is the man she is destined to love, but his tainted past may forever stand in their way. Her choices in potential husbands narrow to either a scarred cripple with the heart of a poet, or a handsome rake with a deadly secret.

Cole Amesbury is tormented by his own ghosts, and believes he is beyond redemption, yet he cannot deny his attraction for the girl whose genuine goodness touches the heart he'd thought long dead. He fears the scars in his soul cut so deeply that he may never be able to offer Alicia a love that is true.

When yet another bizarre mishap threatens her life, Alicia suspects the seemingly unrelated accidents that have plagued her loved ones are actually a killer's attempt to exterminate every member of her family. Despite the threat looming over her, learning to love the stranger she married may pose the greatest danger to her heart.

Donna Hatch
----
Believe in Happy Endings